Hmmmph! All my predictions from a week ago are out the window!
Evans didn’t make up the 2’30" on Rasmussen in the ITT as I predicted. Rasmussen rode a particularly inspired ITT by his standards. Kloden also didn’t make up the time on Rasmussen that I thought he would. And Oscar Pereiro has just kinda faded off the radar.
And out of the blue, riding an absolute barnstorming blockbuster comes young Contador. Good luck to him. He’s earnt his current 2nd place on GC. Great riding. It’s always exciting to see Mountain stages where the race is for GC is unfolding organically in real time. During the Armstrong years I didn’t see that too often. I don’t recall Armstrong ever having to race someone up a climb who could really rattle him with surges and attacks. I’ve missed that sort of action this past decade. Last year’s Tour with Landis in the lead was one of the most boring Tours I can ever remember.
As for Vinokourov? I never rated him as a true GC contender. His mountain form has never been higher than the bottom half of the Top 10 riders if you know what I mean. But he’s an exciting competitor, clearly blessed with lots of top end speed and oodles of aggression etc. Still, the doping thing is just so institutionally entrenched that the sport can’t continue the way it is. Something really drastic has to be done regarding permanent 24 x 7 monitoring of the riders - which of course is a massive breach of privacy etc etc.
I’ll say this, however… every single rider who finished in the Top 5 in every year that Armstrong won his 7 tours has since been busted or banned from racing for doping of some sort or another. Given the nature of how incredibly tough the Tour de France is, and how demonstrably Armstrong beat those guys, Armstrong’s name will always have a question hanging over him. Guilt by association etc.